More Weather – The Small Craft Advisory – That Means You!
When we recently wrote about getting a proper weather report before making way, (see SSP, “Drill, Baby, Drill - Weather Analysis”, 8/4/10), it illustrated how important it can be to drill down into a simple weather report for a day to get the projections by hour. But there is another common newsflash that is heard by those that go down to the sea in ships… The Small Craft Advisory. This column is about that.
Small Craft Advisory
Despite conventional wisdom, the US Coast Guard does not issue Small Craft Advisory warnings. They are issued by NOAA’s National Hurricane Center. What constitutes the threshold for an advisory? It is (relatively) straightforward. Quoting the USCG’s Storm Center (http://www.uscg.mil/news/stormcenter)
The threshold conditions for the Small Craft Advisory are usually 18 knots of wind (less than 18 knots in some dangerous waters) or hazardous wave conditions.
It is issued to alert mariners to sustained (more than two hours) weather or sea conditions, either present or forecast, that might be hazardous to small boats.
In one of those moments that make you scratch your head, on February 15, 1989, the National Weather Service retired its Coastal Warning Display network nationwide. For over 100 years, display stations were established at yacht clubs, marinas, and Coast Guard stations to hoist flags, pennants and colored lights to warn mariners of storms at sea. The display stations were individually notified by the National Weather Service to raise the signals and again to lower them when the hazards passed. The National Weather Service paid for the visual signals; however, the display stations were operated by other agencies or volunteers. So, someone thought it was a good idea not to rely on other agencies and volunteers. The radio and news services would have to do.
As time passed, this became worrisome to many parties. When National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's own report, "Population Trends Along the Coastal United States: 1980-2008," noted that the narrow coastal fringe that makes up 17 percent of the US’s contiguous land area is home to more than half of its population, action was taken. On June 1, 2007, the US Coast Guard re-established the program. From their press release of May 30, 2007, they said, “The re-establishment of this program, discontinued by the National Weather Service in 1989, re-enforces the Coast Guard's role as lifesavers and visually communicates that citizens should take personal responsibility for individual safety in the face of an approaching storm.”
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